Journey to Aachen part 2

Rufus woke up in the middle of the night, feeling cold. He tried to reach out to his blanket but instead spread himself with snow that woke him up.

He then looked around and saw that he was in the middle of a forest. He yelled out hoping someone would be nearby but no one responded.

He was in his undergarments and started to feel immensely cold. Even for himself, he wouldn't be able to survive long in such a place with so little cover.

He got himself up and started to run to keep his body temperature warm. As he did, he sensed a faint divine aura nearby.

When he got close to inspecting the faint divinity he felt, he saw a faint light floating in the dark.

It was Liana who had created a small light to keep herself warm. She looked scared and stressed out of her mind.

Before Rufus could get close to her and tell her he was there, a pack of large white wolves attacked her. These wolves were the same size as a pony and had thicker fur than your average wolf.

Rufus rushed in to protect Liana, but before he could he saw that he probably didn't have to. Liana stretched out the already dim light she had and formed it into a spear made from light. With it, she skilfully moved around and plunged her weapon deep into the beasts.

She also created a large hammer made from light and bashed one of the wolves' skulls. Rufus didn't go and help and decided to look from afar, seeing that she was doing well enough on her own.

Then the leader of the wolf pack came. It was the largest of them all, almost the same size as a deer. It roared and commanded all the wolves to attack at once.

Liana had a hard time defending herself as they came all at once. After some initial success, Liana was able to keep herself from any harm, but didn't spot the large pack leader who lunged at her.

The large wolf grabbed Liana's shining spear by its jaw. The spear shattered under the pressure of the beast's mouth and Liana fell down. She tried to get back up, but the large wolf was too fast and pinned her down.

Right before the wolf was able to devour Liana, Rufus came to her rescue.

"Mind if I join?" Rufus asked.

Rufus gently touched the beast that then exploded with its blood painting the snow red. The rest of the wolves were still thinking of fighting, but Rufus stared down at them and released his divine aura that made them escape.

He then helped Liana up.

"Thank you," Liana said.

"Where did you learn how to fight or wield your divinity?"

"While you were at war, I asked Gwon to teach me. He was more than happy so he helped me on how to fight."

"But why the sudden urge to learn how to fight?

Liana waited for a moment before she answered.

"I want to be useful and correct the errors of my family. For that, I can't stand idle, but I also must pick up a weapon and fight."

Rufus understood what Liana ment, but still didn't like the idea that a child would have to fight.

"And don't think of me as a child. When you were my age, what did you do?"

Rufus remembered, that when he was her age, he had already been living in the slums his whole life. There, every day was a fight for survival, where you had to work hard if you wanted to live.

"I have lived a sheltered and safe life for far too long. It is time I start fighting as well as all the other people in this world do," Liana said.

Rufus smiled.

"You think you can make that small light ball again? I am getting a little cold here," Rufus asked.

Liana smiled and created another light ball that she used to light up the dark forest and keep them warm.

~~

The night turned into morning quickly, but Rufus and Liana were nowhere near finding their way back to the frontier town. They resorted to climbing on top of a small hill so they could see their surroundings.

"Why do you think we woke up in the forest?" Liana asked.

"I have no idea. I just hope the rest of the guys are okay."

They reached the top and what they saw was not very couraging. All they could see was a vast woodland that was covered in snow.

"That's a lot of snow," Liana said.

"And not a lot of towns or places where we can find shelter."

~~

Back in the frontier town, the rest of Rufus's friends woke up in a panic. They tried to look around for Rufus and Liana but couldn't find them anywhere.

"Where the hell are they?!" Amala yelled out.

"No idea, but if they are not in this building, we should then check the other ones in this town," Edward said.

"You think the people of this town would like that we go through their houses by force?" Doreen asked.

"You care what these townspeople think when it's regarding the safety of Rufus?" Edward asked.

"No, I don't care."